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Chicken hearted
Eating adventurously at Char House
Vietnamese skewers, left to right: filet mignon, pork belly, quail eggs, chicken livers, and chicken hearts
Word of a new Vietnamese restaurant off the Convoy restaurant row in Kearny Mesa got me wondering whether my next lunch would involve bánh mì, pho, or bún, aka vermicelli noodles.
All are included on the deep menu at Char House Saigon Grill and Pho. But the specialty of the house is the assortment of grilled skewers. These range in price from about $1.50 each to $2.50, the latter options being filet mignon or shrimp grilled on a stick of sugar cane rather than wood.
Since they were running a special — five skewers for eight bucks — trying a variety of options was an easy choice. Since I’d brought along a Vietnamese friend to share, getting my choice of skewers would be tougher.
Char House turns a pair of strip mall storefronts into a local destination for Vietnamese cuisine.
If I ate shrimp, I’m sure the sugar cane option would have been great, or perhaps another option which leaves both head and shell of the bottom feeder intact. Since I don’t, my tendency is to gravitate toward the filet — maybe the pork belly, white-meat chicken, or octopus. The veggie options looked good too, including asparagus, okra, roasted garlic, and shitake mushrooms.
I like to advocate eating adventurously, but in truth I have my limits and shy away from trying very scary-sounding things. For example, at a popular Chula Vista barbacoa spot recently, an employee gently encouraged me to give lamb eyeballs a chance. That right there was my limit.
But at Char House my friend was pretty convincing, so before I really understood what I was getting myself into I heard myself ordering chicken liver, chicken gizzard, and chicken heart.
Take your pick which puts you most ill at ease. I’m personally comfortable eating liver — chopped liver, pâtés, all good. I know what to expect. The gizzard made me nervous. “It’s kind of chewy,” my friend said. But chicken heart…that flat-out scared me.
I was in luck. The restaurant was out of gizzard this day, and we subbed in another interesting choice: quail eggs. But the heart was in plentiful supply, and before long I was actually eating it. And loving it. Much more tender than I’d thought it would be and without the thick chewy veins or arteries I had imagined. Just a flavorful little piece of chicken on a stick, well cooked, and complemented by a side of tangy green sauce made with salt and sugar cane and secret, fruity ingredients our waiter would not reveal.
Granted, the steak was my favorite, and the hardboiled-then-grilled quail eggs were interesting. But the heart ranked up there, just ahead of the liver. I even preferred it to the pork belly which, grilled on a stick, winds up tasting like chewy, light-on-flavor bacon.
Char House delivered a great dining experience and bolstered my adventurous foodie cred. I may even return to brave that gizzard. But I’d still rather be boring than eat eyeballs.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Chicken hearted
Eating adventurously at Char House
Chicken hearted
Eating adventurously at Char House
Vietnamese skewers, left to right: filet mignon, pork belly, quail eggs, chicken livers, and chicken hearts
Word of a new Vietnamese restaurant off the Convoy restaurant row in Kearny Mesa got me wondering whether my next lunch would involve bánh mì, pho, or bún, aka vermicelli noodles.
All are included on the deep menu at Char House Saigon Grill and Pho. But the specialty of the house is the assortment of grilled skewers. These range in price from about $1.50 each to $2.50, the latter options being filet mignon or shrimp grilled on a stick of sugar cane rather than wood.
Since they were running a special — five skewers for eight bucks — trying a variety of options was an easy choice. Since I’d brought along a Vietnamese friend to share, getting my choice of skewers would be tougher.
Char House turns a pair of strip mall storefronts into a local destination for Vietnamese cuisine.
If I ate shrimp, I’m sure the sugar cane option would have been great, or perhaps another option which leaves both head and shell of the bottom feeder intact. Since I don’t, my tendency is to gravitate toward the filet — maybe the pork belly, white-meat chicken, or octopus. The veggie options looked good too, including asparagus, okra, roasted garlic, and shitake mushrooms.
I like to advocate eating adventurously, but in truth I have my limits and shy away from trying very scary-sounding things. For example, at a popular Chula Vista barbacoa spot recently, an employee gently encouraged me to give lamb eyeballs a chance. That right there was my limit.
But at Char House my friend was pretty convincing, so before I really understood what I was getting myself into I heard myself ordering chicken liver, chicken gizzard, and chicken heart.
Take your pick which puts you most ill at ease. I’m personally comfortable eating liver — chopped liver, pâtés, all good. I know what to expect. The gizzard made me nervous. “It’s kind of chewy,” my friend said. But chicken heart…that flat-out scared me.
I was in luck. The restaurant was out of gizzard this day, and we subbed in another interesting choice: quail eggs. But the heart was in plentiful supply, and before long I was actually eating it. And loving it. Much more tender than I’d thought it would be and without the thick chewy veins or arteries I had imagined. Just a flavorful little piece of chicken on a stick, well cooked, and complemented by a side of tangy green sauce made with salt and sugar cane and secret, fruity ingredients our waiter would not reveal.
Granted, the steak was my favorite, and the hardboiled-then-grilled quail eggs were interesting. But the heart ranked up there, just ahead of the liver. I even preferred it to the pork belly which, grilled on a stick, winds up tasting like chewy, light-on-flavor bacon.
Char House delivered a great dining experience and bolstered my adventurous foodie cred. I may even return to brave that gizzard. But I’d still rather be boring than eat eyeballs.
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